


Worst Lab Partner Ever

by RunWithWolves



Series: 25 Days of Sweetheart [22]
Category: Carmilla (Web Series)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2019-02-02 14:55:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12728775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RunWithWolves/pseuds/RunWithWolves
Summary: As far as everyone's concerned, Laura and Carmilla hate each other and do their best to avoid working together as both seek graduate degrees studying the places where science and magic intersect. They gripe and argue and rumour has it that Carmilla almost got Laura gored by a unicorn.The only person who isn't buying it? Lafontaine. They think Laura and Carmilla are actually hearteyes made flesh. To prove it, they're going to put Laura and Carmilla on the same project - figuring out the science behind love potions.





	Worst Lab Partner Ever

**Author's Note:**

> i'm a scientist. I had to write a lab au!

Laf was going to be here any minute and she had literally zero data. The lab buzzed around, vials bubbling and centrifuges whirling. All uncaring to her plight. Laura plunked her head down on the lab bench, “I’m going to die.” 

Her high buttoned collar was tight around her neck but she didn’t dare undo it.

“If only I would be so lucky,” Carmilla’s sarcasm washed over her from the next bench. The PhD student had been a constant thorn in her side since Laura started her Masters degree in Quantitative Magical Experimentation and apparently Carmilla wasn’t about to cut her a break now.

Laura pointed a finger in her direction, “I don’t need comments from the peanut gallery. This is not going to end well. I’m going to get kicked out of the program.”

“Stop the drama. Laf’s not going to kick you out.” Carmilla paused, “Perry might though. Or give you a lecture. I’m not sure which is worse.”

Laura just groaned and smushed her face deeper into the bench. She could feel Carmilla step up behind her, a shadow against the florescent lights, “Where’s the data from those wand tests you were running?”

She pressed lightly against Laura’s back, a subtle hand on her waist that anyone else would have missed. 

Head still smooshed into the lab bench, Laura reached over and handed Carmilla a crumpled piece of paper. She heard it unwrinkle then a pause as Carmilla examined the graph. “Huh,” Carmilla said, “Yeah. You’re screwed.”

Laura sat up and whirled, glaring at her, “You’re not supposed to agree with me!”

Carmilla just shrugged, giving her a smirk, “You can always have my project.”

“Um. Hard pass.” Laura said. “Nice try. You’re not pawning that thing off on me. What are you even doing? Milking poison from chimera’s right? Didn’t one bite you like two weeks ago? No going to risk it. You nearly got me bit by a unicorn in my first week!”

The smile she got back was the farthest thing from innocent and Laura had to convince herself that her stomach wasn’t flipping at the sight of it, “Well, that’s hardly my fault cupcake,” Carmilla purred, “You seemed like such an innocent. I thought the unicorns would love you. Who knew little Laura Hollis had a sexy side?” She stepped closer. Voice dropped to a whisper, “Of course. That was before I had first hand knowledge.”

“Do you always have to be such a-”

“Hollis! Karnstein! Drop what you’re doing, I have a new project and I need you both on it!” Laura jumped as Laf barged into the lab, throwing papers and bottles onto the lab bench.

Laura frowned, trying to make sense of the papers, “What am I looking at exactly?”

“Love potion!” Laf proclaimed, “I finally got my hands on some and we’re going to figure out how it works. Just because this world has magic doesn’t mean that we can’t science the crap out of the magic and make it submit!”

Carmilla dropped the bottle like it was literal poison, which considering she handled actual poison on a daily basis, was very fast. “Not a chance Gingersnap.”

“Still the person who controls when you graduate,” Laf reminded her.

“Doctor Gingersnap.”

Laf nodded, “Better.” They grinned as they picked up the bottle Carmilla had dropped, “We’re going to distill this down and see what makes it tick. Does it affect hormones? Neurotransmitters? What chemicals are actually in here? Chemical profile. Maybe run a western blot if we can tag some proteins. I’m thinking we start with a BioID? You know the good old bait and prey?”

“What about my wand project?” Laura asked, “I thought you wanted the data on the way the different wand cores interact with hormones?”

“Do you have anything yet?” Laf asked, picking up the paper she’d just handed Carmilla, “Cause I’d be happy to take a look if-”

Laura grabbed the paper from their hand, crumpled it again, and tossed it over her shoulder, “Nope. Love potion sounds great. I’ll do it.”

“Well, I won’t.” Carmilla was back at her own bench and watching from a safe distance, lounging in her swivel chair, “I’m not touching that.”

“Yes, you are,” Laf didn’t even look away from the potion, “Because you’ve been complaining for weeks about your current project so this one is yours now. Betty gets to try and milk the chimeras. She doesn’t bite them back.”

Carmilla rolled her eyes, “My grandmother was a vampire. I can’t help it.”

“Sure,” Laura muttered, “That’s the excuse you always use.”

She tugged on the collar of her shirt. Buttoned up tight.

She forgot about Laf’s cyborg eye. It zeroed in on her as they ran a hand through their hair. “Look. You both need to figure out your whole pining love-hate relationship so that we can move past this. The bickering stopped being cute months ago. Just date already so the hearteyes can stop.”

Laura’s eyes went wide. “What. No. There’s not. We wouldn’t. I don’t.” She spluttered.

“I don’t care.” Laf said, “I really really don’t although Perry wants me to tell you that you’re eventually going to need to submit paperwork with HR or something. Normal ‘staff are dating stuff’. Perr and I have one. Mandatory dating rules.”

“We’re not dating!” Laura objected.

Laf shook their head, “Look. I need both of you on this. I need Carmilla’s knowledge of poisons, magical components, and chemical structure. Hollis, there’s no-one better at understanding magical signals and magical-biology interactions. Science has no time for your relationship drama!”

Something exploded behind them as if literally waiting for it’s cue. Laf grinned.

They looked at Carmilla, “You want the chimeras or the potion?”

Carmilla frowned, her eyes bouncing from Laf to Laura. They landed on the crumpled data at Laura’s feet, the edges of her failed experiment poking out. “Fine,” Carmilla growled, “I’ll do it.”

“Excellent,” Laf looked smug, “Start wherever you want but I’d recommend throwing it in the mass spec soon.” They ran off to watch the postdoc who was working on exploding powder. 

Laura picked up the love potion and swirling it gently. The liquid was a soft pink but she’d seen wizards use it once, the potion changing colour to match the person it was paired to. 

“You owe me.”

Laura almost dropped the beaker as Carmilla’s breath came hot on her ear; her voice low and raspy. A hand skimming her lower back before disappearing. Laura carefully set the beaker down, goosebumps on her skin. She fought to keep her voice casual. “Do I?”

“You do.” She could practically feel Carmilla’s words in her chest, “Because I never would have taken this ridiculous project if you weren’t so worried about getting kicked out. So, you owe me.”

Laura forced herself to lean away from Carmilla’s warmth, rolling her eyes, “In your dreams.”

“I don’t need dreams, cupcake.”

Laura tried not to watch Carmilla sashay away and failed entirely.

Still, she managed to complete her count to 300 before getting up and happening to need to get a fresh graduated cylinder from the glass storage room. She slipped in the door, the room was full of beakers and vials and every kind of freshly autoclaved glass item a scientist could want. 

There was only one thing in the room Laura wanted. 

She kissed Carmilla, pressing her against the one wall that wasn’t covered in shelving. Carmilla gasped into her mouth but then grabbed her tight, hands wrapping around Laura’s waist to pull her just a little bit closer. 

“I think,” Laura said between kisses, “that Laf might be onto us.”

It was gratifying to watch Carmilla melt just a little when Laura kissed her neck,. Vampire. Sure. “You want to talk about this now?”

Fingers found her top button and flicked it open, “You’re the one who insisted we keep acting like we hate each other.” She lifted her chin as Carmilla kissed down her jaw and sighed, “I thought you might be concerned.”

“My mother is literally kidnapping girls to feed them to some kind of magical fish,” Carmilla pulled back, her fingers sliding under the collar of Laura’s shirt to lightly caress the day old hickey hiding underneath it, “and I’m supposed to be helping her. If she finds out about you, that I care about anyone, before we science our way into fixing this. She’ll take you.”

Laura sighed, shoulders slumping. Carmilla’s hand cupped her face. Soft and stroking. 

Laura let herself just thump into Carmilla’s chest, forehead pressing into the hollow of her neck, “I hate this.”

“I know.” Carmilla’s fingers drew circles on the back of her neck as she kissed the top of Laura’s head, “I know, cupcake.” The intonation of the nickname was entirely different.

“We’ll figure this out, right?” Laura said into Carmilla’s neck.

“Assuming the Ginger Professor doesn’t kill us with this love potion nonsense.” Carmilla grumbled, “The only reason I took the chimera project was because I figured I could find reasons not to do it and use the time to get what I could on Mother.”

Laura’s heart skipped a little bit at the way love rolled off Carmilla’s tongue. She forced herself past it. This was not the time. She raised her head and set her chin, draping her arms around Carmilla’s shoulders, “We’ve got this.”

Carmilla smiled, “And there’s that boundless confidence. I was wondering where it went with all the sad boo-hoo faces about your data.”

Laura narrowed her eyes, “You know, you don’t have to make it quite so easy for me to pretend to hate you. Like, you could just be civil. That’d be nice.”

“Oh come now, cupcake,” Carmilla smiled and this time the nickname oozed sex, “Don’t pretend you don’t enjoy the bickering. Why, I’d say you enjoy getting all wound up. That cute crinkle on your face. Forced to keep your hands off me while everyone’s watching. I think you like it a little.”

“Why you,” Laura shook her head but couldn’t stop the smile on her face as Carmilla kissed her. She only pulled back when Carmilla started kissing down her neck, “And no more hickies. I can’t keep wearing these shirts and it’s too hot for scarves. The lab coats aren’t exactly high cut.”

Carmilla grinned, “Only places covered by the lab coat.” Her hand slipped under Laura’s shirt to press against the bare skin of her back, “Got it.”

“Worst lab partner ever,” Laura told her. The words were somewhat negated by the giggle she let out when Carmilla kissed her again.

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this while running some data sets so we're hoping it still works! I'm trying to write more Holstein in scenarios that aren't 'first meeting'. 
> 
> HOW IS IT ALREADY THE FINAL WEEK AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Cupcakes, thank you so much for every kudos and comment and [ tumblr stop-in](http://ariabauer.tumblr.com/) that has come my way. You've made sneaky writing in the lab feel absolutely worthwhile. We started this together and we end the same way. Stay stupendous. Aria.


End file.
